Ok a bit of a rantish post but here goes:
Bryan has been buffed A LOT, I am not sure if Filthie Rich said that df2,3 is now a natural combo, but I saw the 2nd hit launch on CH, 3+4 launches on CH, qcb3 launches on CH (maybe -15 on block now?), fF4 on CH puts the opponent in tailspin state, 3,2,1,2 lands fully at the wall, fF2 is a power crush now.... also the sidestep nerf maybe means that you can no longer just sidestep~block all his offence after he gains +4 with the exception of a generic d4 of course... Only thing he lacks is a generic i13 df1 that's -1 on block and a stiff 12 frame punisher, but if he had those he would be OP as fuck lol. In my opinion Bryan has the best neutral and range 1 to range 2 game in all of Tekken, he may not have EWGF but he pretty much has everything else.
Would be nice to get to test the game. From what I've read about the sidestep nerf, you either have to commit to a short sidewalk after allowing the step to travel it's full distance, or rather, as the step doesn't really evade much anymore, you could just cancel the step into walk as fast as you can. We still saw JDCR sidewalk to EWGF, but there was some weird shit happening as well, like slash kicks/generic running 3's hitting at an almost a 90 degree angle. One thing that I was concerned about was sidesteppable strings not being SS'able anymore but I saw some Paul player SSR the last hit of Devil Jin's bf2,1,2 so it seems that the nerf was intented just to remove the abuse of sidestep~block... and nerf JDCR lol... aaaaand make it so that you have to take the risk of getting hit with a homing move if you wish to move laterally and evade anything at all. Overall this is good for the franchise IMO. In TTT2 sidestep~block reset the situation to neutral all the time. T7 has less movement and more brawling, AO stepped a lot of Nobi's running 2's but got clipped by homing moves quite a few times so overall it seems there is more commitment involved and potential to deal damage and make the game more fast paced and less defensive.
I think T7 top 8 was a hell of a lot better and more hype than MK X's, someone on the stream said "I don't even play Tekken but it's so fun to watch", you never saw these types of comments from other FG fans during TTT2, people hated and talked shit about the game and the stream chats were pure cancer during TTT2.
Something I wonder as well is if command throws that have 1 or 2 breaks in TTT2 can be broken with either input. This would mean that for example Heihachi's throw game would be pretty much the worst in the game as broken toy and firestarter would become completely useless...
Replacing Bruce with Josie is definitely a kick in the nuts, Josie doesn't have b2 or bf4 so it's a completely different gameplan playing this character. Also I am not too happy about T7 Heihachi staying pretty much the same or worse either. Everyone else has gotten buffs: Feng does a shitload of damage with his combos now so does Hwo and Law, Jin and Bryan are straight up beast mode, Kazuya has DVJ b4, DVJ has a launching hellsweep and his d1 is now a wallsplatting power crush which is hella cheap, Drag's sweep launches, Leo's ws4 has an extension that gives her probably the heaviest damaging i11 ws punish in the game, King got AK's f2,1 and d3 and cd1 and ff1 is a high homing move and launches on CH now I think, Hwoarang got a new advancing safe mid with fF4 and his backlash kick is a high hitting power crush that's advantage on block and puts the opponent straight into tailspin state. They nerfed SS, nerfed oki, nerfed throws and generally buffed most lows. These system wide changes already weaken Heihachi and they said on stream that now the 2nd hit of his hellsweep series is launch punishable when it was safe before, but TGF/cd1 is no longer launch punishable, but still unsafe. Also if Hei can no longer at least force an f4 on block on oki it's gonna be really hard to maintain momentum on knockdowns... Which he kinda needs, His design may seem really OP and oppressive but in TTT2 all you needed to do was to just counterpoke with a generic d4 or sidestep left into block to shut down most of his offence and generally just not try to go toe-to-toe with him. Low abuse combined into laming him out outside range 1 and sidestepping left is the key to beating him, given his shitty ws punishment and weak low crushing options. Uf4 is a tailspin move now but I heard it doesn't knock down straight into tailspin on normal hit. I know this is just a quick glance but it seems everyone else has gotten loads of dirt while Heihachi remains the same. Somebody call the whaa-a-a-ambulance, I want a top 5 Heihachi for Tekken 7
